The Curse Of The Full Moon
by Readrbug21
Summary: .::Halloween fic, centered around one particular boy, his friends, an evil plot, and some strange new candy called Full Moons... ::. Updated as of June 12, 2006!
1. Default Chapter

Okay, this will be a random one-shot type thing. I am writing this during my week long fall break from school (thank goodness, I was about to go crazy!) and it is my second fanfic in 2 (count 'em, 2!) days.

I would like to take up these lines to thank all the authors who have written the stories I have previously read to give me ideas about development, attitude, etc. These authors are many, but to name a few :

Dory/Jessie (Anyone Other Than Me: the first story I read on )

El Chupacabra (When Nerdtron Came To Retroville, The Vortex Analysis)

And last but certainly not least, GaDS2000 (The Eye Of The Llama, countless others)

Disclaimer: Jimmy Neutron is not mine, therefore Cindy and he are not together, nor are Sheen and Libby. I did not invent him; I am not the author or animator for Jimmy Neutron, therefore don't expect too awful much from me.

Curse Of The Full Moon

By:

Readrbug21 a.k.a. Samantha

What can I say about Halloween? It's on October 31st every year. Kids dress up as monsters, witches, ghosts, and goblins. They dress up as mere figments of the imagination, as unreal characters and go 'trick-or-treating' to collect confectionary, sugary treats filled with artificial taste, artificial ingredients, artificial coloring, artificial everything. These 'candies' are stuffed into children's mouths, where they are chewed and swallowed and will later cause agonizing pain and miserable misery when the sweet treats turn into not-so-sweet cavities and toothaches.

Now, you may be asking why I am telling you all this. Why am I going to the trouble of informing you of something you will just regard as useless nonsense and will log away to the deepest parts of your memory, never to be thought of again? Why am I against Halloween?

I'll tell you the reason I'm against Halloween. But first, I had better give you a little background information so as not to confuse you as how my stance on this particular issue came about.

It all started on October 31st, just two weeks ago. My friends and I were going trick-or-treating together as we do every year. Libby and Cindy were going together, as they had been for as long as I could remember.

We had gotten together at recess and decided that, if we went to the same houses at the same time, more candy could be accumulated and thusly our immense hunger for chocolates and such would be filled.

It was now time for us, the students, to be dismissed. Every eye in the room was focused on the circular, black clock fixated on the wall above the chalkboard.

We watched the hands slowly move upward. 5 minutes till. Now 4. 3. Just 2 minutes now. 1 minute. Almost 3:00. 5...4...3...2...1...DING! Finally, the bell rang.

The girls got up and started to walk across the room to the door. Our group followed, and all 5 of us stopped right outside the door.

"O.K. We're meeting at my house at 5:00, right?" Cindy questioned the group.

"Right," We all answered back.

"See you guys then, me and Libby are going straight home to work on our costumes." Libby waved as they turned and walked out the door.

"My house?" Jimmy asked.

"You're house." Me and Carl answered back.

"Right behind you, Jimmy." Carl told him.

We walked to his house to try out his new machine, the Costume Creator #2004/J-N. You step into the smaller-than-the-doghouse box and close the curtain, then you press the big blue button and it automatically transforms you into the creature you want to be for Halloween. I was going as Ultra Sheen, Ultra Lord's ultra-sidekick.

We got to the lab and Jimmy pulled one of his hairs and held it out in front of the DNA Scanner, a.k.a. VOX. _"Welcome home, Jimmy_," came a robotic voice.

The mat before our feet dropped down and we went down with it. Screams filled the tunnel and, at last, we were deposited on the floor of Jimmy's lab. Carl was on bottom, followed by Jimmy, with me on top. We were all dazed for a few minutes.

After I regained 'consciousness', I said jokingly, "You know something Carl? You'd think that a genius would know to put a mattress down before sliding down his own welcome tube."

"Sorry guys. I guess Goddard moved it; he was complaining about how the floor was sort of hard during the day."

"That's O.K. Jim."

"Lets hurry, it's almost time to meet the girls and you know how Cindy is when we make her wait."

"Yeah, you wouldn't want to make your _girlfriend_ mad, would you Jimmy?" I said, starting to laugh. It always makes him mad when anybody mentions him and Cindy together in a lovey-dovey kind of way. Carl and I were both laughing hard, and it was hard for him to get a word in edgewise.

"She's not my girlfriend!! She'll never be my girlfriend! So could you please stop talking about it?" he said angrily.

"Whatever you say, Jimmy. You know you like her!" Carl said teasingly.

"Yeah, and it's a full moon tonight! You might get a kiss!" I said. Carl and I both erupted into fits of laughter. I don't know why he didn't throw us out, probably because he knew everything we were saying was true.

After about five good minutes of laughing at Jimmy's expense, we finally sobered up enough to get to work on our costumes.

"Gentlemen, may I present to you the latest version of my Costume Creator? I remodeled it last night so we could all three fit in at the same time."

"Right, we wouldn't want to make Jimmy late to see _Cindy_, would we Carl?" I felt another intense fit of laughter coming on.

"Right Sheen!" Carl agreed, and we both started to laugh again.

"O.k. O.k." I was breathing heavy from all the laughter. "Let's get ready."

We all stepped into the Costume Creator. "All you have to do is think about what you want to be for Halloween and then press the big, blue button."

"Gotcha Jimmy." I imagined myself in an Ultra Lord costume, with a big S on the front, standing for Sheen. I closed my eyes and pressed the button. Suddenly, a whirring sound came on and the next thing I knew, I was wearing an Ultra Lord costume with that same big S on the front. "I LOVE IT, JIMMY!" I screamed almost immediately.

"Good. Now let's go. We're late enough as it is."

"We're coming-" I was about to make another joke, but he cut me short.

"Don't even think about starting up with that again."

"Fine."

We walked across the street to Cindy's house. Jimmy knocked on the door and Cindy's voice came from within- "Come on in Neutron. Just don't touch anything. If you do my mom will freak."

"Remember guys. Don't start with that Cindy's Jimmy's girlfriend stuff, because she's not. Plus, it probably wouldn't be very fun for you too to spend Halloween in the emergency room. You know what Cindy will do to you if you do."

"We won't mention it. We promise." I crossed my heart and saluted to show him I was telling the truth.

"Good."

"O.k. We're ready," Cindy said as her and Libby came slowly down the stairs.

"Wow! Cindy you look…" Jimmy was going to say beautiful, I just know it.

"I look what, Neutron? Too good to go trick-or-treating with _you?_" She gave Libby a high-five and started to laugh.

Please read and respond. I know that it's not really a good place to end

a chapter, but I wanted to see what you guys

thought about this particular idea.

If you want the rest, please respond!

As Always,

Readerbug21 a.k.a. Samantha


	2. The Curse of the Full Moon: Part One

I sincerely hope this makes up for the incredibly LONG time between updates. I also apologize for any misspelled words/grammar mistakes. For the reason, see my author's link/page thing. :D

I also hope this is easy to read...if you had a hard time understanding things after you read it, perhaps reading the next chapter will clear some stuff up. Once I get it up, that is. Or you can always e-mail me, PM me, talk about it in your review, etc. :D

Now, onto the long, long, long awaited continuation...

_

* * *

__A scream rang out from one of the back rooms, where it echoed off the sterily white washed walls of the lobby. All the occupants capable of such feats turned their heads toward the sounds, wincing in anticipation. One boy, sitting extremely close to the doorway of the hall that lead to said back rooms, paid particular attention to the horrendous noises emanating from the rear of the building. One thought kept him on the edge of his seat, ready to escape at a moment's notice, but then a sharp stab of pain would force him back down, glued to his seat. One thought, that same nerve-rending, doom-impending thought, reverberated around the caverns of his mind. The only thing he could think about was what the lady in white had told him._

_He was next. _

-- --- --- --- --- --

What can I say about Halloween? It's on October 31st every year. Kids dress up as monsters, witches, ghosts, and goblins. They dress up as mere figments of the imagination, as unreal characters and go 'trick-or-treating' to collect confectionary, sugary treats filled with artificial taste, artificial ingredients, artificial coloring, artificial everything. These 'candies' are stuffed into children's mouths, where they are chewed and swallowed and will later cause agonizing pain and miserable misery when the sweet treats turn into not-so-sweet cavities and toothaches.

Now, you may be asking why I am telling you all this. Why am I going to the trouble of informing you of something you will just regard as useless nonsense and will log away to the deepest parts of your memory, never to be thought of again? Why am I against Halloween?

I'll tell you the reason I'm against Halloween. But first, I had better give you a little background information so as not to confuse you as to how my stance on this particular issue came about. It all started on October 31st, just two weeks ago...

-- --- --- --- --- --

A hyperactive boy of Mexican desent awaited anxiously the dinging of the bell, signaling it was finally time to go home for the weekend. He was particularly antsy this Friday afternoon, seeing as tonight was Halloween night. He couldn't wait for all the chocolate-y goodness, the caramels and the candies, the suckers and the gum. Adrenaline coursed through his veins just thinking about the gobs upon gobs of candy he was sure he would get.

The bell finally rang its last ring for the day, and he was released. Because he was the first one out the door, he was forced by obligation and duty to stop and wait for his fellow classmates and friends to file through too, so they could leave together, as tradition dictated.

Once all three comrades were outside the educational building, the rather large, bulky one asked the short, rather brainy one what time they were to meet at said brainy one's home to begin their annual journey to gather sweets, to which the brainy one replied, "5 o'clock sharp. I've got an invention that I think will help us tremendously boost our respective stores of candy." Seeing the apprehensive look on his bulkish friend's face, he reassured him, "Don't worry Carl; I've already tested it. There's practically no ill side effects shown. Well, not after it starts to work, anyway." He grinned at his friend sheepishly.

"Yeah, Carl. What Jimmy said. Stop being such a baby," Sheen added.

Sensing the oncoming argument, Jimmy proceeded to walk ahead of his bickering friends a few steps. "That's not what Jimmy said Sheen! He said there wasn't any ill side effects!" Carl retorted, then realizing that he wasn't _quite_ sure what that meant, turned to the smartest of the bunch. "What are ill side effects, Jim?"

Laughing, he explained, ticking things off on his fingers, "It means that it won't hurt you, or paralyze you, or make you sick, or kill you, or any other bad thing that could happen to you physically."

Whether he understood or just simply didn't care anymore, Jimmy nor Sheen never knew, but all Carl said in response was a dismissive, "Oh," and that was effectively the end of the invention conversation for now.

-- --- --- --- --- --

_The pain was starting to worsen. If something didn't happen soon..._

_No, he would not think such things. This wasn't the time, nor the place...well, perhaps it was the place, he conceded to himself. He was torn between the agony he was forced to endure presently, and the agony he knew would be experienced further down the road. Of course, he once again contradicted himself, that pain won't last very long..._

-- --- --- --- --- --

Carl and I were surprised to feel the ground beneath our feet give way. Of course, we expect this everytime; we know it's going to happen, but for some odd, unknown reason we are never prepared for it. It always takes my breath away. I think that's part of the reason I like it so much. It gives me a rush. It makes me excited. It scares me.

Kind of like Halloween. Now, I know I'm a bit old for the whole "boogeymen in the closets; monsters in the dark" stuff, but there's just something about Halloween that freaks me out. Something I can't explain. Maybe it's some special Halloween syrum all the candy manufacturers put in their recipes around this time that does it. Maybe it's the full moon that always seems to come out around All Hallow's Eve. Who's to say, really? All I know is that I don't like being out after a certain time on October 31st.

Perhaps I have some sort of sixth sense for these things. Whether you choose to believe it or not, I usually know when something really bad's going to happen. I choose not to say anything because for one, I like the adventure, the exhilaration. For another, not many would believe me.

That could be why, on this particular fall afternoon, I just didn't feel right getting prepared to go out candy-collecting. Don't get me wrong, I still wanted to go trick-or-treating, but something just wasn't clicking. I got this funny feeling, almost a premonition type thing. However, it wasn't strong enough to keep me from doing anything drastic, like stay home.

And besides, with my friends, there's _always_ a great adventure waiting to happen, especially with a few souped up toys to play with along the way...

-- --- --- --- --- --

Just as they promised, Sheen and Carl showed up at Jimmy's doorstep at 5:00 sharp. Anxious to get underway, and in anticipation of a brand new invention to fiddle with, they were more than excited to drop into the unknown that is Jimmy's lab.

Once they had landed roughly on their behinds on the cemented floor, they waisted no time in foraging for Jimmy. They found him huddled over something secretively, clad in a white lab coat, blue rubber gloves, and black goggles that covered nearly half of his face. "Hey Jimmy, what'cha working on?" Sheen asked, slapping him on the back.

Startled by the sudden contact, he dropped what he was holding onto the table, where it bounced and clang until he picked it back up, holding it tightly. Glaring lightly at Sheen, he held up a small, oblong, orange pill. "This is my latest and greatest invention, Hallo-Blaster Fuel," Jimmy explained, setting it down on his workbench and walking across the room to retrieve another piece of machinery. "And this," he said, motioning toward the orange and black tool he held in his hand, "is the Hallo-Blaster."

"What's it do Jim?" Carl asked, observing his friend as he lead them through the inner workings of the ivention.

"Excellent question, Carl! Allow me to demonstrate. First, you place the correct type of fuel into the fuel tank, like so," Jimmy said, flipping up a small square on the side of the machine and popping the pill in. "Then, you twist this dial here to set the frequency. The higher the frequency, the better the result, but the more fuel you use." He fiddled with the knob for a second, twisting it this way and that until he was satisfied. "Finally, you aim the Hallo-Blaster at your target and press the button, like so." He took aim at a blank area on the wall farthest from them, squeezed the trigger, and watched as a dazzling light erupted from the mouth of the tool, hitting the wall dead on. A few seconds was all it took to completely transform the wall from drab cement to a festive Halloween mural.

"Wow," both Carl and Sheen breathed.

"And it works on humans too, so all we have to do is blast ourselves with it and we'll be dressed in no time flat! Now, who wants to go first?"

-- --- --- --- --- --

There was little challenge between my comrade and I. He's rather easy to overpower; you just have to know how to exploit his weaknesses to your advantage. It's really not that hard. I've done it several times in order to sneak a few of his chili cheese fries or a bite of his Choco-Supreme at the Candy Bar. But I digress.

Here comes the rather boring part of my narrative, and since it's not extremely relevant to the main point of the story, I feel it only necessary to skip over all the details of our attire and the step-by-step guidelines of our little excursion. You'll thank me for this later. Really, you will. And, besides, if you've seen one costume, you've seen them all, haven't you? Now, where to pick up? Oh yes, here's a good place to start...

-- --- --- --- --- --

Three preteen boys emerged from a shabby-looking shack, located behind the Neutron's house. All were in costume and felt ready to take on the night. They safely crossed the road to a certain preteen girl's home to pick up the remaining members of their small party.

Giggling, Sheen and Carl lightheartedly pushed Jimmy forward, encouraging him to knock on the door. After giving them both glares, he did just that. After several minutes of waiting and a few muffled, "Hold on! We're coming!"s, the two girls emerged, also in costume and with treat bags in hand. "Ready? Let's go," the blonde-haired of the two huffed, as if she had been the one standing on the front porch, waiting. Her raven haired friend followed her down the steps and out onto the sidewalk.

Staring after them, Carl asked, "Wonder what's up with her?" Jimmy and Sheen looked at each other and shrugged in response, then, sensing that the feminine portion of their group was quickly gaining ground on them, they ran to catch up with Cindy and Libby.

-

"Trick-or-treat!" five youngsters sang out in unison to the owner of the house. Nothing could have prepared them for what they would have to go through because they had uttered those three simple little words.

-- --- --- --- --- --

Things were going fine for our quintuplet. Well, Carl _did_ trip a few times, losing a large portion of his sweet morsels, but that was to be expected. By the fourth time he fell, we even had a sort of candy-retrieval system worked out. We had gathered gobs of candy already, and were starting to wind things up, wanting to hit all the houses on the street we were on before going to the Lab to barter treats with one another.

Almost to the point of dragging our feet by the time we had arrived at the next-to-last house, we were little more than courteous, offering the homeowners a tired and overused, "Trick-or-treat." As we trudged down the steps and the few short feet of sidewalk to the last house, I got this funny feeling. It wasn't particularly strong, just enough to pique my interests and sharpen my senses a bit; a whim, if you will. But by that time, I wasn't sure if it was something I really needed to listen to, or just something emerging because of my slight state of exhaustion. Not to mention the fact that over the course of the night, I had consumed a fairly large amount of my candy. Thinking it might of just been a postponed sugar rush, I didn't really listen to my intuition. Following the group, we walked up the last stoop for the night. This fact gave us a boost of energy, and when the door opened to reveal the shriveled old lady with her basket of goodies, we exclaimed, "Trick-or-treat!" with more vigor than a number of the previous houses had recieved.

Had I known what that house contained, I would have listened to my gut and high-tailed it home...

-- --- --- --- --- --

_Perhaps, he thought to himself, if we had just called it quits earlier, none of this would be happening right now. So much pain, so much needless pain, so much preventable, avoidable pain. If he was able, he would've kicked himself for not listening to his body when all its alarms were going off. Oh well, he sighed. You live and learn, I guess. Of course, this thought was followed with yet another burst of agonizing pain, and then, "I just hope I live _to_ learn!"_

-- --- --- --- --- --

"Trick-or-treat!"

"My, what a lovely bunch of children. And such adorable costumes!" the withered woman exclaimed, smiling widely behind her coke-bottle glasses. She grasped a wooden cane in one hand, and carried a bowl of woven straw filled to the brim with candy discs, covered with a pale yellow wrapper. "Won't you have some Full Moons?" she inquired, sticking the bowl out, offering.

The children took quick glances at one another. Full Moons? That was certainly a new brand. They certainly _sounded_ Halloweenish. They didn't ponder over it long, however, as their feet starting complaining, reminding them they had been out long enough for one night. Encouraged by the old lady watching over them, they grabbed handfuls of the foreign candy, filling their bags up by doing so. "Thank you!" they shouted as the began their trek home, wondering in the backs of their minds just what exactly a Full Moon was.

They never heard the old woman chuckle as she shut the door, saying to herself, "Yes, such lovely children. Lovely, lovely children." Placing the emptied bowl on the counter, she dropped her cane and walked toward the living room, cackling the entire time.

* * *

Okay, this was supposed to be a one-shot, but I figured, What the heck? It's long enough, and that's a fairly good place to stop. Such a nice cliffhanger...LOL. I promise, I'm going to work on this story and finish it this summer! I will! If I don't, you all have permission to hunt me down and shoot me. Er, maybe not _shoot_... 

Um...well, good news: school's out today (Monday the 22nd), so I have roughly three months to work on stories. Hopefully, my fanfictions will pick up, since I have no homework. :D

And the title of the story finally comes into play! Part of this was probably familiar, but most of it is new. Well, duh, LOL. Silly me. This is almost done, so expect the completed finale sometime around Wednesday-Friday. I promise! I will finish it this time! I've found a nice rhythm to it, so I can actually finish! Be proud of me! LOL.

I thought about (and actually started) a chapter two, but I really, really, REALLY like this better, and I hope you guys do too. This is dedicated to all the readers who have waited for (gulp) over TWO YEARS for an update. You guys rock! But only if you review this time too...lol.


	3. The Curse of the Full Moon: Part Two

We made it uneventfully back to the Lab, where we wasted no time in dumping our bags out in our own piles. I remember someone, probably Jimmy, yelling, "Let the bartering begin!" as we started swapping our less preferable treats for our friends' less desirables.

We were just about to the bottom of our piles when we just happened to notice, as a group, that no one had touched the Full Moons. In fact, it seemed almost as if we had forgotten all about the old lady's generous contribution. None of us really wanting to be the first to try it, we began to dare each other...

-- --- --- --- --- --

"I dare...Carl to try it first!" Sheen yelled, animatedly pointing his finger at his bulky friend.

Terror filling his small, dark eyes, Carl stuttered, "N-no! I d-don't want t-to!"

"Oh come on!" Sheen urged, "You eat everything else!"

"I do not!"

"You _know_ you want to," Sheen enticed, wiggling his eyebrows for effect and waving a piece of the mysterious candy under Carl's nose. "Come on, try it!"

Unable to stand it any longer, Carl buckled under the pressure. "Fine! I'll try it!" he burst out. "If I die," he continued dramatically, while Cindy and Libby rolled their eyes behind him, "tell Judy she can have my llama collection." When they realized what he had said, his friends mouthed "Eww!" in varying degrees.

Moving the piece of candy around in his mouth, he gave them his report. "It's kind of soft and gooey. Tastes kind of like...caramel. Or butterscotch." Sucking on it a bit longer, he continued, "Wait a minute! It's got a center! And," he bit down on it, "Ow!-it's hard. Tastes kind of lemony. Mmm..." Carl smiled, and reached for another. "These are pretty good you guys. You should try them."

Shrugging, they each grabbed one and stuck it in their mouths, working it around to taste for themselves a Full Moon. "Hey, these are good!" Libby said, reaching for another one. "Yeah! Give me one, Libs," Cindy said.

Soon, after everyone had consumed the entire supply of Full Moons, the group made a discovery, which, of course, was iniated by Jimmy. "My teeth feel...funny. Like something's stuck to them. What about your guys' teeth?" When everyone began to scrub their teeth with their tongues, they soon agreed.

"Maybe it's just because the candy was so sticky," Libby suggested.

"Yeah, don't worry your big head over it, Neutron. I'm sure our teeth will be perfectly fine after we brush them," Cindy put in. "Ready to go Libs? Bye Nerdtron, Ultra-Dork, Loser."

"Yeah. It's been a real pleasure boys. See-ya." She waved them good-bye, then followed Cindy out the door.

-

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, a person was busy getting out of their costume. Taking off the gray wig, coke-bottle glasses, and dress, a man stepped out, laughing to himself. "I've got you now, Jimmy Neutron. And all your little friends too."

-- --- --- --- --- --

_He couldn't believe he hadn't seen this coming. Sure, he wasn't the smartest kid in town (though he was best friends with one), but he was fairly observant. And he had his moments. Of course, one of the biggest moments was enhanced so much with technology that he supposed it couldn't really be counted._

_But hindsight's 20/20. Everyone seemed angry at themselves for not seeing the forest for the trees. Looking back, he realized there were all sorts of warning signs, and however subtle or minute they were, they were still there. They had still happened. _

_They had still been ignored._

_He started to sigh, but had to cut it off halfway through. It just simply hurt too much. Oh why couldn't he have seen the obvious? Because, he answered himself, attempting a smile, the obvious was hidden under a full moon..._

-- --- --- --- --- --

"Alright Neutron, start explaining," Cindy huffed, stomping up to the local boy genius, ready for a confrontation and an explanation for what was going on in her mouth.

"Yeah Jimmy. What'd ya do to our mouths?" inquired a very peeved Libby, coming up behind her friend.

Not turning from his lab door, he told them, "I haven't a clue as to what is happening to your oral cavities, but rest assured, I'm going to get to the bottom of this." He turned around, looking at them for the first time. "If you ladies will excuse me, I've got some research to do and data to collect, concerning my own mouth." He made a move to open the door to his clubhouse, but Cindy was not one to just stand aside and let things happen.

"Neutron, either you tell me what's happening to my teeth or I make sure you wear false ones for the rest of your life!"

"Do I look like a dentist Vortex? I don't know-and frankly, I don't care-what's happening to your teeth." However, when she wouldn't budge, he was forced to glare at her and admit defeat. "Fine. You can come in my lab. Just don't touch anything."

Getting admittance to Jimmy's lab was one of Cindy's longterm goals, but this was a hollow victory, for she was starting to feel the effects of Halloween.

-

"Jimmy! Jimmy! Let us in! Hurry! We need your-" Sheen and Carl were interrupted from their banging-of-doors when the mat slipped out from under their feet and they fell, landing on the hard floor of Jimmy's lab. Noticing just exactly who's company they were in, Sheen jumped up. "Libby! I'm so glad to-ow!-see you!" he exclaimed, his slight and newly developed tooth-ache beginning to assert itself.

Carl, as opposed to Sheen's jubilance at seeing Libby, was not as happy. His low tolerance for pain and the apparent failure of normal pain relievers was what had him seeking his friend's eternal knowledge in the first place, and girls or no, he was going to get what he came for. "Jimmy, do you have new and um, really, really fast working pain relief medication? Because I took some aspirin and Tylenol, but that doesn't seem-"

"Do your teeth hurt too Carl?" Libby asked, interrupting her bulky acquaintance.

Carl gasped, looking at her in surprise. "How did you know?" he breathed. "Are you a mind-reader?"

She never got a chance to answer, though, because Jimmy cut in. "Wait, everyone, show of hands. How many of you are here because you have a toothache?" When Cindy and Libby quickly shot their hands up, as he expected, then Carl and Sheen did the same, he began rattling off questions. "When did you notice your tooth was hurting Cindy?"

"Teeth," she corrected him, "and after I woke up this morning. About 8:30, I think."

"What about you Carl?"

"Well, I started to notice it during breakfast. I remember because we were having blueberry chocolate chip pancakes. Um, about 9:00?"

"Sheen?"

"During the morning Ultra-Lord viewing. It starts at 8:30, but I didn't notice anything was wrong until it went off and I started to eat my Ultra-Lord Berry Blaster cereal that really turns your milk blue. You should try it, and help support the Ultra-Lord Fan Club, because 15 percent of the profits go directly to the-"

"Sheen! What time?" Jimmy pressed, irked.

"Alright! Dang. Ultra-Lord goes off at 9:30. Happy now?"

"And did your toothache start about nine Libby?"

"That sounds about right. And it's not just one tooth, it's my whole mouth."

"Hmm...that's interesting," he said, lost in thought already. He headed over to his main computer, typing in the information.

"What is?" Carl inquired.

"Given that no one else has monopolized my time with complaints about their teeth going haywire, I feel correct in assuming that we are the only ones to whom this problem has presented itself. Now, if everyone began noticing their toothaches at different times, I would probably think it was just because of our excessive rations of candy eaten last night. However, since our toothaches began around the same time, and since the odds of that happening are extremely slim, I'll need to do some tests to deter-"

"Woah, woah, wait just a minute. Tests? What kind of tests?" Cindy interrupted him.

"Just simple samples of your teeth. Don't worry, the drills I have that I'll use numb whatever they touch, so you won't feel a thing," Jimmy assured them.

Libby declared her defiance to his supposed answer to their problem by using a tone she thought he wouldn't dare argue with. "There is _no way_ you are coming near me with a drill."

-- --- --- --- --- --

I have to admit, if there's something Jimmy's good at besides being smart, it's persuading. He could probably convince an eskimo to buy ice. Sure, it took some time, but he finally convinced us all to let him play dentist for a little while.

It wasn't all that bad, actually. Whatever was making our teeth behave this way was sure starting to be a pain, though. It was like everyone's teeth were connected and when someone's symptoms started to worsen, everyone else's soon worsened too. It almost seemed as if someone had planned this, like maybe someone had planted some sort of device in our mouths and kept pressing the pain button.

It didn't help that Jimmy couldn't readily identify what exactly the problem was. He kept saying things like, "Organic matter," and, "Never been found quite like that before," and something that really didn't sound good: "What _is_ this? Who would be crazy enough to put those chemicals together? Did they have a death wish?"

Finally, when he turned to us (we were in the stage of pain when it was more than just a nuisance, but not completely unbearable. For the most part, we were strewn about the rest area, lying on the couch or the floor, trying to lessen our pain by sleeping), we expected him to ramble for about five minutes, say he had the answer, give us some sort of unsafe, untested product, and we'd all leave and live happily everafter.But what he said made us realize that, not only would we not be happy for a while, but sometimes, genuises really don't have all the answers.

"Guys...I don't know how to fix this."

* * *

I bet you guys expected an end this time, didn't you? Ha! I fooled you! But, alas, I fooled myself too. I thought this was going to be the end too. Oh well. I suppose this will have to do, won't it? (Sigh) And I thought I was going to be done with this story! lol. 

No more promises, though. Those are bad and just don't work. I will try, however, to have the real ending up...sometime. lol, that's about as difinitive as I can be. I can say, however, that I have given a lot of thought to the plot line, and it's increased dramatically. So...I suppose that's something, right? Right? Right! Anyway, please review and tell me how I can improve, because I don't think this installment was as good as the first one.

Oh, and cookies go out to those who guess correctly the identity of the troublemaker! Or is it someone new? Mwhahaha!


End file.
